The Riser Chronicles - Episode Two
by Yajuu-Kikuishi
Summary: (The sequel to 'The Riser Chronicles - Episode One'.) Now more at ease with his new abilities, Calvin Kelham can focus on more important things; revenge against the monster who killed his family. He doesn't know where, but he will find him, even if he needs help along the way. But he isn't the only one on the hunt, Louise Lee is on the war path, and pity anyone who gets in her way.
1. Prologue

_A/N: Welcome one and all, to Episode 2 of my Riser Chronicles. If you read the first episode, I hope you enjoyed it. Although I suppose if you're reading this one you probably enjoyed it at least a little bit! If you haven't read the first episode, I suggest you go do that first, since this is a direct sequel and if you don't know what's going on, it might get a little confusing. Other than to mention that I will give credit for submitted characters (i.e. the same lot as last episode) altogether at the end of the episode, I have nothing else to say. I hope you enjoy the story to come._

**- Prologue -**

He was just another person making their way through the streets of Metropolis during rush hour. It was harder for him than most, however, because he was a couple of inches shorter than the average; so he couldn't see where he was going easily. But he wasn't shy about pushing people out of his way, so soon enough a vague path appeared as oncoming people saw him coming and avoided the inevitable collision if they stayed on the route they were on.

There was nothing remarkable about the man at first glance; he was wearing a plain blue basketball jersey, massively baggy around his thin frame, a pair of baggy jeans that barely hung around his waist thanks to a ring-loop belt, and a pair of wide trainers that seemed to be making him walk slower, as if they were too big for him and he had to half-shuffle to stop his feet coming out of them altogether. He wore a large baseball cap on his head that hid the strangest bit about him, but not completely as the back was still visible and strands stuck out along the rim. Despite looking young and fit, his hair was completely stark white and seemed at odds with his dark eyes and smooth skin.

The surge of people suddenly veered away from the buildings and despite his height, the man could see a temporary fence blocking off a small amount of tables and chairs; a small café's sidewalk attachment. It was there that the man pushed his way towards and soon enough he was clear of the people and within the border of the fence. All the seats were vacant with the exception of a single seat near the door, which was filled by a woman.

The woman wasn't any kind of 'hot stuff' but she was hardly bland either, especially with her choice of clothing style. It seemed to be a mix of Goth, punk, and military inspired but matched perfectly with her dark brown hair that hung around her face and brushed the tops of her shoulders, and her dull green eyes. She was wearing a black button up top that had a gap above her breasts, showing a hint of a lacy bra and cleavage, that joined back up around her neck with a shirt collar, a red plaited skirt that had black bars crisscrossing it's short length, a pair of blue camouflaged leggings with a pair of old military boots loose on her feet. On her right hand was a fingerless glove with chains around the wrist, and along her left arm was a black sleeve that was fastened at the bicep with a thin silver chain and at the wrist with a silver clasp.

The man walked up to the woman and without a greeting, pulled a chair out and collapsed into heavily. "Joanne." He said, a scowl barely avoiding his lips.

"Leon. I'm glad to see you decided small was better." Joanne replied, brushing one side of her hair behind an ear, and bringing the pen she held to a stop. She had a napkin in front of her that was covered in numbers and little letters.

"I'm not a complete idiot, I know what undercover means. Although I am getting pretty impatient, it's been about 3 and a half weeks since we got here and I haven't laid my hands on that asshole yet." Leon replied, sliding down in his chair and crossing his arms. "I've got a lot to repay."

Joanne nodded and smiled, like Leon had just said something highly interesting. "Don't worry, I told you that you'd get your revenge soon. We're just confirming his routines and favourite stops." When Leon had woken up after his savage beating by their target, Joanne had explained their new mission but had left out the bit he would get most excited about; Leon was going to be allowed to let loose. She had decided to keep that to herself for now, and she was still following that at this time as well.

"I haven't even seen the bastard, except on initial contact when we arrived. Why are we wasting time?" Leon was sulking, but Joanne didn't care. She simply smiled and pointed upwards. Leon glanced up in time to see a black smudge dodge between the skyscrapers around them and a smile crept onto his lips before he could supress it. "There you are, you little ass." He muttered before dropping his gaze down to Joanne. "So when are we doing this? I take it you've worked out his favourite spot by now?"

Joanne picked up her napkin that was covered in numbers and folded it neatly before slipping it into a pocket sewn into her skirt. She stood up and Leon followed suite, showing he was currently about the same height as her. "We're going to be meeting up with the others for a final run through before I start anything. They're a couple of blocks down, at a comic store Mira knows."

They set off back into the rush of people, Joanne letting Leon go in front to clear a path, and started their short journey to the comic store. It was hard work for the first hundred feet or so, as they made their way down the packed street, but as soon as they turned a corner the people suddenly filtered away and Joanne and Leon were left stood on their own. Joanne sighed in relief and took up position ahead of Leon, leading him on towards the meeting place. Compared to the first street they had started on, the rest of the way was pretty empty in comparison; it was obviously some sort of main thoroughfare for the people of the city.

Not that the rest of the streets were empty, there were still enough people walking around that Joanne was constantly dodging out of the way while Leon pushed his way past. However, they were soon at the comic store, Joanne pointed out the sign from a corner.

For a comic shop, it was quite luxurious, better than any of the ones that Leon had ever seen before. It totalled two floors, the bottom of which had floor to ceiling windows full of statuettes and action figures, while showing rows upon rows of comic books behind. The floor above didn't have any windows at all, but it was decorated with various first issue covers from famous comic books. It was clearly popular but it wasn't overflowing, and Joanne picked out Mira and Sora pretty easily. Although, that would probably be because she knew them, otherwise they fit in quite well with the other clientele.

Joanne led Leon into the store and she saw that the bottom floor seemed to be all about the new stuff and current issues, while a sign that pointed up a set of wooden stairs told her that it was all back issues up there. She ignored that, and the other people browsing the store, and walked directly up to Mira and Sora.

Mira's undercover look consisted of a white halter top tucked into a red tartan skirt that fastened around the waist with a wide leather belt with a skull buckle. She was also wearing a pair of long socks that stopped above her knees, striped black and white, with a pair of loose ankle boots on her feet. She was also wearing a short hooded coat that didn't quite reach the top of the skirt with a fur lining, three chain necklaces of varying lengths, and three chains hung looped from her left hip. Mira still had her dragon wing headband holding her blonde hair out of her eyes. She currently had a comic book in front of her face and she seemed to be fully engrossed in it.

Out of the four of them, Sora was probably dressed the most usual, it would go unnoticed throughout Metropolis. She had gone for a pair of skinny blue jeans, a tight t-shirt with dark brown sleeves and a white chest with a brown wavy design on it and a pair of white converses on her feet. The only things that would gain her any notice would be the four rings on each finger of her right hand, each one shaped like one of the suites in a deck of cards, and she had a single pouch from her uniform belt attached to a slim leather belt that was around her waist. She had also drawn her elbow length hair into a plait that ran down her back. Sora had been chatting away but as Joanne and Leon approached, she dropped into silence.

Her silence seemed to bring Mira out of her comic as she dropped it and caught Joanne's eye. "Hi." She said quietly and Joanne smiled.

"We made secondary contact just now, it looks like you were right, Mira. Our friend has been hanging around the Daily Planet building." Joanne said quietly, barely above a whisper. "That's where we'll do this thing."

"We're going to start a fight directly in front of the Daily Planet?" Leon said, a grin sliding on his face.

"No." Joanne said and Leon's grin turned into a scowl. "You're going to." Leon's grin was back, wider than before. "Not only that, Leon. But I've had direct permission from Director Watson that you're allowed to go all out." Leon's face was one of pure glee. "I can't believe I'm actually saying this Leon, but 'Red Demon' is a go." No one in the world was happier than Leon was right then; he nearly raced out the door there and then. "But in four days' time. We'll set up two observation points to monitor the building to get the best understanding of when he'll be there, and once I'm happy, I'll set you loose."

Leon looked disappointed in the four days but the mood didn't last long because all he could think of was the amount of damage he was going to cause to his nemesis; he had a lot to repay considering the last time they met, Leon was left half buried in the road.

* * *

He had long ago forgotten his real name, he went by Coyote now. He was a fairly imposing figure, taller than most, more muscles than most, and certainly more anger than most. Coyote also had more scars than most; they went from his toes all the way to his neck, bizarrely leaving his face completely unmarked. He complimented this lack of facial scar by sporting a moustache/goatee combo to match his scraggily hair that he swept back over his head. Coyote was wearing what could only be described as medieval suit or armour, although it had clearly been constructed out of modern day technology; perhaps even beyond that. It was as black as night, with minimal sheen, and underneath it he wore a dark grey boilers suit style garment that covered him from head to toe. On his right hip a massive Desert Eagle hand gun was strapped and on his left was a short, one handed battle axe. At his feet lay a battle helm and around him lay dead bodies.

Eight dead bodies to be specific, they had all been aggressively decapitated and their heads had been placed in a neat row along a raised wall. They all wore matching suits, clearly a uniform, and all still had weapons in holsters around their person. There were pools and splatters of blood everywhere except Coyote himself; he had somehow managed to avoid any of it getting on him.

After the brief skirmish, Coyote was now stood on the edge of the building, a pair of binoculars pressed against his eyes. His prey was about 800 feet below him and about 60 feet across the street; they were gathering in a comic book shop. Coyote grimaced, he had been without most human commodities for over 20 years, and he had lost the taste for such things. It was causing him distaste and strain to be stood so close to the heart of a human city, but his master had commanded it. Coyote had a debt to his master and he would follow every rule as if it were the commandments from God. He could suffer through the time it would take him to kill the children he was hunting.

His Lord had asked that their deaths be silent and invisible in order to unsettle the Director of START, who was plotting something against the master. Killing was something Coyote was quite skilled at; killing silently he could do from time to time. He had never had to kill invisibly though; it meant he had to think about the exact way to kill the children instead of his usual; the usual being described by the bodies around him on the rooftop. It was a problem he was going to have to think about and it'd probably take 3 to 4 days until he's happy he can fulfil his master's orders to the letter.

He was also going to have to figure out a way to discover what abilities the children had, or rather whether any of them have any kind of immortal or invulnerability that would prevent him from killing them. If they did, he could still complete the mission, it'll just be much worse for the immortal ones because they'll most likely end up in a state of constant dying; a fate perhaps more dreadful than death.

Coyote lowered the binoculars and threw them over his shoulder, allowing them to smash against the ground. He bent down and picked up what, at first glance, seemed to be a rifle of some sorts. It was completely moulded out of plastic with the exception of the small barrel which was made out of a lightweight metal not far from aluminium. He pulled back on a small level that was on the side of the weapon and there was a small hiss and a click as something fell into place at the rear of the barrel. On top of the weapon was an expensive scope, somewhat at odds with the construction of the rest of it, and Coyote put his eye to it and focused in on the door of the comic shop just as the first of his targets came out.

He wasn't really bothered by who he was killing, as long as the order was to kill, so Coyote only asked for the name of his targets and nothing else. This is why he knew it was Leon who came out of the door first. Not because he knew what he looked like, but because out of the four names he had been given, Leon was the only boy. Following behind him were the three girls, Mira, Sora, and Joanne, whose names could be interchanged as much as Coyote cared. It was at the girl at the back who it settled under his scope.

They turned left out of the comic store, which meant they were putting their backs to Coyote, which was a bonus for him. He put the etched reticule central to her back and then lowered it so that the edge of her fur-lined coat was the target. Then he moved off to allow for the effects of the world to affect his shot; it was one of his many practical skills he was proud of. With a gentle pressure on the trigger, the weapon coughed in his hand, and the small cone shaped bullet shot forward silently.

A long second passed and Coyote watched the cone flattened against the back of the girls white top, hidden partially by the fur on the edge of jacket which had risen slightly as she was walking. The only reaction the girl gave to being hit by something was to glance behind her, as if someone had tapped her on the back. Coyote smiled to himself and broke the weapon over his knee before walking over to a vent, bending the cover off, and slipping the parts into the vent. Then he bent the cover back into position, picked up his helmet from the ground, and walked through a door that would lead him back to ground level. The device in his pocket had already picked up the tracking beacon currently attached to Mira Cholo's back.


	2. A Reporter's Truth

**- 1 -**

**- The Reporter's Truth -**

Louise Lee was fuming; no one had given her a dead end like that in a number of years. It was a complete stonewall and if this had been a story or any normal situation she might have given up there. But she wasn't here for a story; she wasn't here because normal circumstances bade her to be. Louise Lee was here because her boyfriend was missing after being attacked, having his family murdered, and then disappearing from right in front of her eyes outside of a hospital. S.T.A.R.T. labs was her last chance at finding out just what the hell happened because Cal's problems all started when he was attacked by that monster at their labs.

Not that S.T.A.R.T. labs were her first option; it was only because she had exhausted every other option that she was now sat in a clinically white room, on a hard plastic chair, with the hawk of a receptionist staring at her every fidget. Louise refused to talk to the receptionist after the first four conversations led to the same answer of "I've given you all the information I have, Ms Lee." Now she was waiting for the Section Leader to come out and talk to her.

It wasn't the same place where Cal's father had taken them; it was an office building in London that served as an administrative base for the company. The building where the accident happened was still cordoned off and being investigated. According to the receptionist, during one of the last conversations before Louise started her strike, the entire complex had been shut down and no-one had been allowed to enter. Louise had immediately been doubtful; she didn't have to be a reporter to know that that isn't the way governments worked. Sure, the actual incident room was probably still out of bounds, depending on what that gas was that was spraying around inside, but the rest of the labs would be back operational.

Louise suddenly stopped fidgeting and sprang to her feet. "That's it!" she shouted, nearly causing the receptionist to leap out of his chair in alarm. Louise nearly jumped across to his desk and laid her hands down on the counter. "Look, you better find me a Section Leader right now and drag them here by their ears, or I'm going to do it instead." The receptionist looked ready to puke, or run away, but a polite coughing from her back caused Louise to turn around.

Stood in the centre of the room, nearly exactly, was a man. He wasn't particularly tall, although he was taller than Louise, and his brown hair was cut short to a near buzz cut. He had vivid blues eyes that stood out even more against his slightly dark skin. A crisp white suit adorned him, complete with a pair of pointed white shoes, a dark shirt, and a silver tie.

"I hope you're the Section Leader the receptionist kept talking about." Louise said coolly, crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Unfortunately not…" the man said, but raised his hand as Louise started to speak again. "I am, however, the Director; is that sufficient?" Amar Watson said, not unkindly.

Louise faltered for a second before regaining her composure. "I suppose so. I'm here about the accident that happened at one of your labs that resulted in the disappearance of my boyfriend." She said quickly, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"I am aware of the situation. I am Amar Watson, by the way." He held out his hand and Louise stepped forward to shake it. Her hand never touched Amar's, however, simply passing through it and causing the hand to break away into pixels and reform. Amar laughed out loud as Louise looked startled. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh but I couldn't resist. I'm actually in Metropolis at the moment, but I heard you were around and decided to drop by, so to speak. Obviously I wasn't going to waste time flying all the way here. Before you ask any more questions, and before I can answer any, let's go down to my office."

The virtual Amar led the way, Louise following behind, and after turning a few corners, he ushered her through a door with his name on it. Being virtual, he couldn't open the door himself so he asked Louise to do it as he disappeared and when the door was opened, he was sitting at the desk. Louise closed the door behind her and sat in one of the chairs that Amar pointed at, placed at an angle in front of his desk.

"So what can I help you with? I understand your current situation is being handled by the police." Amar said, forming his fingers into a peak and gazing over them.

Louise snorted. "Yeah, like the police could get anywhere when they aren't even trying to get into the lab where it started."

Amar frowned. "To my understanding, your boyfriend disappeared from the hospital. I realise that his visit to the hospital was indeed because of the accident that happened at the labs, but I can't see how is disappearance could be linked."

Louise cocked her head sideways with a look that said she thought Amar was dumb to think she was that dumb. "I'm not an idiot, I'm a reporter. When Cal disappeared, it wasn't because he ran off when no-one was looking; he literally disappeared right under my nose. Once second he was there, the next he wasn't. I'll add that this was after knocking holes in buildings and denting cars with his bare fists. Now, nothing in the hospital would do that to him so by process of elimination; it had to have been in the lab." She paused and when Amar didn't say anything, just kept his gaze on her, she continued.

"It's what I just remembered in the waiting room. When that monster-thing threw Cal across the room like he was made of paper, he ended up in a room with something that was spraying some kind of gas around the room. That was why the room locked down and I couldn't get to him."

Amar nodded slowly. "Yes, the room would lock down. I understand it was explained to you that the gas Calvin was exposed too was a nerve toxin our company was working on."

"Like hell it was." Louise said instantly. "I know nerve toxins, and being knocked out isn't what it does to you; not without a number of other effects first."

Amar narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything. Instead, he seemed to be thinking about what to do next. Then his shoulders sagged a bit and his mouth opened in an inaudible sigh. "Ok, Ms Lee, you got us. The gas that Calvin was exposed to was not a nerve toxin as we have said." Louise raised her eyebrows in surprise; she hadn't been expecting Amar to give up the truth so quickly, if at all. "It was actually a gas designed to genetically alter the structure of the human body in order to grant abilities beyond the natural."

Louise had a very disbelieving expression on her face. "I'm sorry?" she managed to say.

"You heard me correctly." Amar stood up and clapped his hands, causing a large television screen to descend from the ceiling against the wall to his right; Louise turned to her left to look at it. All it was showing at the moment was some sort of screen saver that consisted of an image of 'S.T.A.R.T.' rotating around in the centre. "But I can see that you don't believe me. Here, watch this." He gestured at the screen and the screen saved popped away to reveal a high quality image of what seemed to be some kind of lobby.

"That's the Metropolis Central Bank." Louise said. Amar nodded and gestured at the screen again, indicating to Louise to watch while at the same time activating the video.

The camera was set above the main counter area, with a wide angled lens that saw about 70% of the lobby with the main entrance more or less directly in front of it. Louise watched as a black clad figure entered the building but was stopped at the door by two guards. After a brief conversation, and without any warning or apparent movement, one of the guards was thrown through the glass running along the side of the door. Louise's eyes widened in surprise and she stood up to get a better look at the television. The second guard had pulled his gun but he too was sent bafflingly flying, this time straight backwards where he disappeared under the camera's view.

The attacking figure stepped into the lobby, in front of all the cowering people, and raised his arms. "Oh, you'll want to hear this bit." Amar said suddenly and clicked his fingers, activating speakers that had previously been turned off.

"Leave the room now please; I wouldn't want to harm any innocent civilians." The figure said and Louise froze where she had been tapping her fingers along her arm.

"But that's Cal's voice." She said slowly before rounding on Amar. "You're telling me that Cal's accident gave him super powers and now he's robbing banks. But he was throwing those men like they were nothing! Just like…him." Her realization sank in as she remembered the masked man.

Amar had stopped the video with a gesture and was watching Louise carefully. "Well, not exactly like him. Not as far as I am aware." Louise was staring at him but didn't attempt to speak. "I know exactly what the masked man can and can't do, but I have no idea of the potential of Cal's abilities. The substance he was exposed to was a brand new idea concocted and put into reality by Richard and Susan Kelham; Cal's parents. You see, instead of trying to develop specific powers within a person, as START had been doing previously, the Kelhams decided that we should think broader and their idea was to turn the human body into a battery and allow it to manifest its own abilities."

"Parallel to that, they began to think of ways to power such abilities without adding strain to the body. So they found a way to convert the cells in the human body into solar batteries with the ability to store a near infinite amount of energy. A billion cells holding near-infinite energy! It was genius." Amar paused and looked down at the floor. "Unfortunately, we have not been able to replicate the process. Richard and Susan took the secrets to their deaths."

Amar's head suddenly exploded in pixels as Louise's open palm passed through it with a slap that never connected. "That's all you can say about them! They were murdered and all you can say is how unfortunate it is that you didn't know the secret of creating an army of invincible soldiers!" An idea dawned on Louise and she pointed her finger threateningly at Amar; whose head had now reformed. "You trying to capture Cal, aren't you? You want to break his body down to reveal the secrets of the Kelham's formula!"

"Not exactly the plan but I'm not about to tell you what that is, now, am I?" Amar said as a sly grin appeared on his face.

Louise suddenly took a step back as a look of worry appeared on her face. "So why did you tell me all of this?"

"It's not like you'll be able to tell anyone." Amar said and watched as Louise spun around to dash for the door.

Only there was now a person behind her and as soon as she started her forward momentum towards the door, she felt a needle slid into her neck and her eyes widened as the drug was applied. The figure had a deep hood, blue in colour, throwing his face into shadow and Louise had a panicked flash back to the man who had attacked them in the labs. She lurched away from the figure but stumbled once before collapsing to the floor.

The man in question lowered his hood to reveal that the left side of his face appeared to be melted, physically. All the skin was drooping and loose, showing the underside of his eye and giving his mouth a permanent lop-sidedness. Some of the skin from his chin was joined to the skin around his collar bone. Apart from that, he looked normal with dark brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a brown turtleneck jumper, over a pair of loose jeans and white trainers on his feet. A white lab coat sat on top of that, with the blue hooded coat on top of that.

"You want to initiate this girl into the programme?" the man said, his words slightly slurred due to his disfigurement.

"Yes." Amar said as he waved his hand and the television rose back into the ceiling.

"I'm sure I don't need to tell you that she would no doubt have told people she was coming here. If she disappears now, you could be attracting unwanted attention."

Amar smiled. "Please, Decard; give me a little bit more credit. There will be evidence that she left this building in one piece." Amar nodded at the door behind Decard and the scientist turned around to see Louise Lee walk through it.

She was wearing a tight black t-shirt, a black sweatband on each wrist, a black nylon belt holding up a pair black combat trousers, which were tucked into the top of a pair of black combat boots. Her blonde hair sat loose around her face and shoulders.

"This is Launi. She will leave the building, as Louise, and create an alibi at another location: giving anyone trying to find her no reason to believe that her disappearance has anything to do with us." Amar said, walking around his desk to stand in front of her. "I'm sure you'll think of something good for Ms Lee to be doing?"

Launi, wearing Louise's face, smiled widely. "I'm sure I can think of something exciting for her; maybe even outrageous."

"Nothing too flashy." Amar warned and turned to Decard. "Take her to the Labs, and set her up in Riser Initiation."

Decard nodded. "Any one of them you want her to specifically participate in?"

Amar seemed to consider before his sly smile returned to his face. "Give her DOT-091."

Decard rose his remaining eyebrow. "Are you sure that's wise, Amar. We have yet to fully synthesise a successful copy; using it on an unwilling subject is tantamount to throwing it away."

Amar's smile disappeared as he rounded on Decard. "You may have originally worked for him but his instructions were very clear; while you are part of my labs you work under my command. Administer the DOT-091." With that said, Amar pixelated away into nothing.

Decard scowled, while Launi walked across to Louise and flipped her over. She turned her head to Decard. "Time to leave the room, melty face."

"What?"

"Unless you want to explain why Louise decided to change her clothes while she was in here; I need to swap clothes." She looked pointedly at Decard and pointed at him with a slim finger. "So you, creepy pants, can get the hell out of here."

"Fine." Decard lifted the hood to cover his face and exited the room, practically slamming the door behind him.


End file.
